I have frequently discussed the myth of the Irish vampire in the past.
Basically, this newly-manufactured myth claims that the Irish author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, was influenced by a substantial body of vampire lore in Irish tradition and that this lore goes back hundreds of years.
Where did these stories about Irish vampires come from and what evidence exists for them? I intend to go through these claims and debunk them one by one. The first claim (chronologically) is that there is evidence for the Irish vampire tradition in Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (A Basis of Knowledge About Ireland), the history of Ireland written in the Irish language by Seathrún Céitinn (anglice Geoffrey Keating) in the 17th century.
Haining and Tremayne (who I will discuss in detail later) in their 1997 book, The Undead, claim that this work contains an account of vampirism:
It has been suggested by the prolific Irish author and novelist Cathal Ó Sándair (1922-1996) in ‘Dracula Domharfa’ (Dracula the Immortal), Irish Times, 18 May 1993, that while at Trinity College, Bram undoubtedly came across and read Seathrún Céitinn’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, the History of Ireland, written between 1629 and 1631. Dr Céitinn dwelt on the subject of the neamh-mhairbh (the Un-Dead) in Volume I, Chapter 10.
Is this true? Well, we can dispense with this nonsense very easily and very quickly, by quoting the relevant passages in Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, in both the original Irish and in an English translation. The passage deals with the great magicians of Irish mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danann, who were living in Greece on their travels when the country was attacked by the Syrians. The Tuatha Dé Danann used magic to reanimate corpses to fight for their Greek hosts:
Tárla mu’n am soin go dtáinig cobhlach mór ó chrích na Siria, do dhéanamh cogaidh ar lucht críche Ateniensis go mbíadh cathughadh laitheamhail eadorra; agus an drong do marbhtaoi do na h-Ateniensis is iad bhíodh ar a bhárach ag cathughadh re lucht na Siria. Tré dhraoidheacht Tuaithe Dé Danann do-ghníthí an siabhradh soin: óir do chuiridís deamhna is na corpaibh ceudna d’á dtoghluasacht. Agus mar thugadar lucht na Siria sin d’á n-aire, téidhid do dhéanamh comhairle re n-a ndraoi féin. Ráidhis an draoi riu, faire do chur ar láthair nó ar ionad an ármhaigh, agus cuaille do bhior caorthainn do sháthadh tré mheidhe gach mairbh do bhíodh ag aitheirghe chuca, agus má’s deamhna do-ghníodh a gcoirp do thoghluasacht go gclaochluidhfithí i gcrumhaibh fo cheudóir de sin iad; agus damadh é a n-aithbheodhadh dá ríribh do-ghníthí, nach géabhdaois na coirp truailleadh ná claochlódh chuca. Tigid lucht na Siria do chur an chatha ar a bhárach, agus maoidhtear rompa, agus sáithid na cleatha caorthainn tré sna marbhaibh amhail ro ráidh an draoi riu, agus do rinneadh crumha dhíobh do láthair; agus lingid lucht na Siria fótha iar sin d’á n-óirleach.
It happened about that time that a great fleet came from the country of Syria to make war on the people of the Athenian country, so that there was daily warfare between them; and those of the Athenians who would be slain, it is they who would be on the morrow fighting with [i.e. against] the people of Syria. That necromancy used to be done through the art magic of the Tuatha Dé Danann: for they would put demons into the same bodies to restore them. And when the people of Syria became aware of this, they go to take counsel with their own druid. The druid says to them, to set a watch on the site or on the place of the battle-field, and to thrust a stake [of a spit] of quicken-tree through the trunk of every dead person who would be rising up against them; and if it were demons who would cause their bodies to revive, that they would be from that immediately turned into worms, while, if it were really their revival that had been brought about, the bodies would not suffer change or corruption. The people of Syria come to join battle on the morrow, and it is won by them, and they thrust the stakes of ash through the dead, as the druid had told them, and presently worms were made of them: and the people of Syria fell on the others after that, slaughtering them.
As you will see, there is no reference to the word neamh-mharbh (plural neamh-mhairbh) in this text, which is unsurprising given that its first recorded use was in the 1930s. The dead are referred to as bodies or as the dead. There is no reference to them drinking blood and they are not regarded as vampires. And while the staking of the dead to kill them might make us think of vampirism, such anomalous burial practices are found in many countries and cultures. Bodies have been found with stones wedged in their mouths, others with stakes through them at crossroads, yet others buried face down and others with bolts or nails through their ankles or hips to stop them walking. These traditions are not exclusively Irish and they certainly aren’t all aimed at vampires, only at unhappy spirits who might choose to leave the grave and go for a walk.
The County Derry story of Abhartach (which I will deal with next) is not mentioned at all in Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, as many of these garbled accounts of Irish vampirism wrongly claim. It is of no relevance that Foras Feasa ar Éirinn or its English translation might have been seen by Stoker in Trinity College Library, because Foras Feasa contains no reference at all to vampirism or to Abhartach.
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